Eli Lilly & Co has suffered heavy setback during the first quarter ended March 2015 due to unfavorable foreign exchange rates and patent expirations in respect of Cymbalta and Evista. Though its net sales declined by one per cent to $4,645 million from $4,683 million in the corresponding quarter of last year, its net profit declined by 27 per cent to $530 million from $728 million. EPS moved down to $0.50 from $0.68 in the last period. Its revenue in US increased by 6 per cent to $2,197 million due to higher prices, wholesaler buying patterns, increased volumes for cyramaza and the inclusion of revenue from Novartis Animal Health. However, its revenue from international market declined by 6 per cent to $2,447 million.

The sales of Cymbalta declined by 40 per cent to $287 million from $478 million and that of Evista by 55 per cent to $67 million from $150 million. Humalog sales registered growth of 5 per cent to  $684 million from $650 million. The sales of Alimta declined by 9 per cent to $573 million from $632 million due to higher net effective selling prices.
 
John C Lechleiter, chairman, president and CEO, said, “While our first-quarter revenue reflects the impact of foreign exchange headwinds and the lingering effects of US patent expirations for Cymbalta and Evista, Lilly remains on track to return to growth in 2015 driven by excellent progress in our innovation-based strategy. Recent new product launches, the growing success of our late-stage pipeline, and the recent acquisition of Novartis Animal Health reinforce our confidence in our future. Results in the first quarter also reflect ongoing cost-containment efforts, even as we continue to make the appropriate investments in both internal and external innovation necessary to sustain our pipeline for the future.”

Its R&D expenditure declined by 6 per cent to $1,039 million during the first quarter ended March 2015 from $1,109 million. It launched Cyramza (ramucirumab) in US and EU for second-line metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and for advanced second-line gastric cancer. Further, it expects to launch this product in Japan in 2015.

The company has revised certain elements of its 2015 financial guidance on a reported basis. Full-year 2015 earnings per share are now expected to be in the range of $2.21 to 2.31 on a reported basis. It anticipated 2015 revenue of between $19.5 billion and $20 billion.